Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

need"supplieth."world."poor"The Editor's PageOver Against the TreasuryYou may enjoy an interesting guessing gamewhile waiting in your parked car at the curb sometime, reading the faces, the clothes, the gait of thepassers-by. Is he a Christian or an unbeliever, abanker, a lawyer, teacher,craftsman? Is he rich oror widower or divorcee? Ispoor, married or single,he happy or morose, brilliant or dull, honest or acrook? The answers are there, but your score, yourbatting average, if it could be ascertained, will not behigh. You would not pick Hattie Greene in her fadedblack-green dress and out-moded sailor hat to be thepossessor of $400,000,000.00 or the man in the top"hat and monocle to be an escaped convict.Jesus indulged in this game too at times; forinstance the day that He sat over against the treasury and watched the people casting in their offerings. But His score was probably perfect, althoughrediculousmistakes. There were some munificent gifts,those who sat by Him considered He was makingquite in keeping with the opulent equipage of thegivers. Other gifts were less ostentatious, some evenface betrayedmiserly as you would expect. Jesus'until a poor widow inneither approval or disapproval,threadbare clothes, with horny hands, and a facewith all the evidences of malnutrition, came by andcast in one no there were two copper coins thenJesus with face beaming said to His disciples, "Didvou see that? That was the biggest offering of theday. She has cast in more than all the rest put together. Such faith ! Such love ! Such devotion ! Thatwoman doesn't know where her supper is comingfrom nor tomorrow's breakfast. She has cast in allher living."Do you think that Jesus was cruel to turn thespotlight on the poor modest wizened miserably oldstyledwidow ? And not for that moment only, but forall future generations to gaze upon her poverty ? No,for if we only realized it, the spotlight was not on herat all, but on every one of us, and on our bulgingpocketbooks, our luxuriously equipped homes, ourlatest model cars, our expensive wardrobes; howmean they all look in the presence of that woman smagnificent gift! These out of the theirabundancebut sheunusable surplus have cast into the treasury,out of her penury! Have their gifts and ours evercost us a hamburger's solace to our over-stuffedabdomens ? "Shall I give to my Lord that which costmenothing?"said David to the Jebusite. Have weever felt the pain of real sacrifice? It is a blessedpain The Lord looks upon the untouched surplus, aswell as the gift. He is still sittingtreasury.over against theBut does the Lord expect us to give as that poorwidow gave? His longexperience over against thetreasurywhere humans are constantly passing wouldnot tend toward great optimism. Certain it is thatsuggestion of censure inthere was not the slightestHis comment regarding her blind indiscretion in"casting in all her living." Had she not done it m lullreliance on Him who said, "Trust in the Lord and do228good ; so shall thou dwell in the land, and verily thoushalt be fed." We don't know where she got her supper nor her breakfast, but we doubt not that Hispromise was fulfilled in full.WHY DO WE REGULARLY FAIL TO RAISE THEBUDGET?There are several reasons ;First there is a formula that will not work. Suppose the Budget set is $100,000.00 and the homemembership is 5,000. $100,000 divided by 5,000 equals$20 per member. Each member's quota is $20.00.There are 100 members in your congregation, therefore the quota for your congregation is $2,000. Easyenough for a strong congregation, but suppose acongregation has only 25 members and the supportof the home congregation needs every cent they canraise. Where will their $500.00 come from ? We thatare strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weakand so fulfill the law of Christ. I doubt if any congregation is so naive as to suppose that the Budget canbe raised by that formula, but I do not doubt thatthere are plentyof individuals who evade their responsibility by use of that formula. The formula attributed to the Communists falsely so "Fromevery one according to his ability, to every one according to his was the very basis on whichGod built the human body, and the church is Hisbody "that which every jointAnother questionable formula, used by someconscientious, well-meaningcongregations is to seta congregational budget for themselves at the annualmeeting, and Synod's Budget is not forgotten butgiven a generous share, a little in advance of the previous year, perhaps. When March 31 comes around,all the items have been met, and everybody is happy,and they report to the church that their share of theBudget is paid. Since there is considerable surplus inthe treasury, a sum is set aside for emergencies, thepastor is granted a bonus and his salary raised, a finething to do. But who determines whether they paidtheir full share to the Budget? Is it not He who sitsover against the treasury? The fact is that if everycongregation followed this system, all their contributions to the Budget added together do not total thefigure required to carry the main business of thechurch "Go ye into all theBRING YE ALL THE TITHES INTO THE STOREHOUSEIt is often said that if all tithes were given byGod's people there would be more money than thechurch could use. Probably true if we stuck to themeasley plans of the present day for bringing in thekingdom. However it is my persuasion that if we allgave as that poor widow, or the boywith the fiveloaves and two fishes, the Lord would not refuse tobless and use every gift to the fullest extent. "Yeknow the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who wasyet for our sakes became He gave tenrich,tithes every day.But why does the tithe not reach the storehouse? First of all, there is leakage in the individualpocket. In reckoning our tithe we are apt to overlookCOVENANTER WITNESS